Post-Vacation Wrap-Up

So we had an awesome vacation. Houston was the best part, oddly enough. Our hotel was really great, I needn't have worried and it was near everything. We walked to restaurants and bars at night, which was great because we didn't have to worry about parking or who gets to play DD. And apparently Tim didn't even KNOW about the downtown tunnels, so he got to experience those for the first time. We went to a bunch of FANTASTIC vintage stores Saturday and saw more mid-century modern furniture and pieces than we'd ever seen before in our life! We wound up getting two groovy 60's lamps at a little hole in the wall near TSU, and a shelving unit at another store on Milam. Everything was a steal, although everything also needs a little work. But we're up to the challenge! Sadly, the unit is still at my parents because it took serious Tetris work to get it in to the Scion and then we would have had no room for Stella, Lucy or any of our belongings. And I forgot to snap a picture before we left. But my parents are hopefully bringing it next week, so I'll have pictures as soon as I can! The lamps are still in progress, but I can post pictures of their current state:

The hanging one is ready to go, rewired and everything, but since we'll probably hang it in front of our shelving unit, we're kind of waiting for that to be put up before we put it up. Although I don't know if my patience can hold out that long! It's green and white and grey little pieces of plastic glued together. Hard to explain, but I am in love with it!

The other one is a floor to ceiling standing lamp that has springs in it and literally fits between the floor and the ceiling. My mother recognized what it was immediately, so if you grew up in the sixties, you probably know what I'm talking about. The pole was gold and brown, so we spray-painted the gold part silver. It needs another coat before it's done. I think Tim is re-wiring it as well.

Saturday night we had way too much delicious beer at the Flying Saucer along with really wonderful conversation. I think we were there for over 3 hours! Sunday we went on a driving tour of the coooooolest neighborhoods in Houston; we saw a ton of mid-century mods. Unfortunately, many of them were next to new construction behemoths. Houston and the surrounding areas desperately need a McMansion ordinance. We went to Memorial Bend, Meyerland and Glenbrook Valley. In Glenbrook we hit the mother-load. Wow, what an amazing number of beautiful, perfectly preserved MCM's. We were in HEAVEN! Some of my favorites:

Look at those rooflines! I totally am going to use this picture for inspiration if we ever build an addition onto our house. That Home Depot-special door is a crime against nature, though, on this house.

Love the windows on the right:

This is perhaps my favorite. I'd seen it on a forum I stumbled upon (where I found out about Glenbrook) and it is even more amazing in person:

I wish I'd taken more pictures, but I was sort of afraid that someone would call the cops on us, especially in Memorial!

After we finished driving around and took off our drool cups, we headed to Galveston. Unfortunately, our condo which had actually gotten good reviews was a hole. A Golden Corral with very bright lights stood between us and the ocean, so while we could have seen the ocean at night from our balcony, we couldn't because we were blinded by the lights. And then the waves were so bad that we couldn't go in the water (they had a red flag up; it was the worst I'd ever seen), so we just kind of walked along the water shivering for less than a block and gave up.

The killer waves that kept us from going in.

We didn't have a hot tub at Chez Crappy and the heated pool was constantly full of kids (we heard a kid laughing at ONE AM!), so my new bathing suit saw no water. I don't think kids go to school anymore because I certainly see them everywhere on weekdays. So Galveston was a wash, although still relaxing. We had some good food, played putt putt and saw "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (lots of fun, you should see it). So I'd hardly call it a disaster.